I'm Going back to the Stars
by Funeral for the Living
Summary: My first fanfic! Zim's found out the Truth and commited suicide. Dib, who witnessed it, is forever changed, and has now dedicated his life to stopping pain. But how? PG13 for non-graphic knife deaths, mature angst, no love, and no cussing.
1. Prelude Ch1 I'm Going Back to the Stars

Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim. I do own this story, which is completely mine. Zim and all related characters are © to Jhonen Vazquez and Viacom, but not Nickelodeon, seeing as they cancelled it. Those jerks... Enjoy this fic, it took me forever to write.  
  
A/N: This is my first, and probably only, angst Invader Zim fic. I came up with a continuation of this story while writing it, so I'll leave it up to you to vote if you want it or not. In my personal opinion, it is very good.  
  
BTW, towards the end of the fic, some things happen than may be considered by some to be ZaDR actions. Just so y'all know, I really don't like slashes. I don't hate them, but I don't like them. I'm friends with a huge ZaDR fan, if that proves I don't hate it. But let me repeat; this is not a ZaDR fic, or any other type of romance, and there is no romance whatsoever in the continuation, except brief references to the Devi/Nny thing. Nothing big and they don't get back together. If you want to know what the continuation that you guys vote on is about, read the bottom.  
  
~*~  
  
I'm Going Back to the Stars  
  
~*~  
  
Dib was woken up by a sharp buzzing sound. Hazily, he realized it was only his digital alarm clock. For some reason, it was still dark outside, so he reached over to his bedside table and clumsily began trying to turn the alarm off. He succeeded in knocking his glasses on the floor.  
  
Now a little more awake, Dib slid out of bed and onto the carpet. Shivering, he got down on his knees and began feeling around for his glasses, ignoring the alarm clock for now. His right hand finally grasped the glasses and he put them on. Dib turned to the clock and was able to see the red button to turn the alarm off, despite the dim light.  
  
After the buzz stopped, Dib glanced at the green digital numerals to see what time it was, and did a double take. It was midnight! Okay, it wasn't, but you have to admit that 11:02 PM is pretty close.  
  
At first Dib though that Gaz had set the clock to go off at eleven to annoy him, or that Dib had accidentally pushed a button to reset the alarm. He was about to go back to bed, when he remembered why he had set the clock for eleven.  
  
At Skool, earlier that day, Zim had been acting weird. Weirder that usual. He hadn't said a word to Dib, insult or otherwise, he didn't bother to buy the skool lunch to appear normal, and at recess he had just stood at the side of the playground, listlessly staring at his feet. When it had started to rain in the middle of recess, he hadn't moved, and just let the rain fall on him. In fact, he had shown no signs that he even could move until Mrs. Bitters had called them in from recess. When the bell rang that afternoon, signaling for everyone to go home, Zim had just walked outside into the rain, once again not paying attention to it, and continued on to his home or base or whatever it was. It was almost like Zim was a zombie. Or a robot. Dib was going to try to capture Zim while he was unprepared and get him to explain why he was acting like that.  
  
Dib had worn his clothes to bed, so he quietly slipped out of his room, hoping that the alarm clock hadn't woken up Gaz or their dad. As he quietly walked down the stairs, he had several doubtful thoughts. 'What if Zim has finally come up with a plan I can't beat?' he thought, approaching the front door. That would explain why he was so zoned out at skool. 'What if he's getting reinforcements from his planet? Or he's got some new weapon? Or he's poisoned Earth's water supply?' Dib thought, fumbling with the lock on the door. 'What if this is all a trap?' Dib stopped dead in his tracks, one foot in the house and one outside. Zim could have been acting the whole time at skool, trying to make Dib suspicious so that he would do exactly what he -was- doing, try to sneak up on Zim. 'Is Zim a good enough actor to do walk into the rain without flinching?' Dib wondered. Dib sighed deeply. Well, if he didn't continue with his plan, he would probably never find out.  
  
Dib walked along the street, occasionally stepping in a puddle or two, the result of the afternoon's rain. It was a full moon, and the grass in front of the houses were covered in dew (not to be mistaken with DOO). Dib could see small flowers blooming on many trees. Lots of the flowers were falling off already, since spring was almost over. Dib wished that he could just go on a walk like this, in the dark, with the moon and the flowers and the dew. Unfortunately, there was something he had to do first.  
  
Dib thought he would never reach the house, then suddenly it was just to his right, the green walls glowing eerily in the moonlight. Very very eerily. Dib shivered and kept walking. Maybe he -could- take a walk, and come back around 11:30...  
  
As Dib passed the left side of the house, he saw Zim standing between his "house" and the fence, just standing there. Like he was waiting for something. Dib stopped walking, and nervously wondered if Zim was waiting for -him-.  
  
After a moment's hesitation, Dib began walking towards Zim, his boots rustling as they brushed aside the dew-soaked grass. Zim still hadn't moved. He was... standing, facing the fence, his thin arms crossed in front of his chest, his red eyes looking down at his feet. 'Zim's out of disguise?' Dib thought.  
  
Dib thought he heard Zim take a deep shuddering breath, like a sigh, but that might have been the grass.  
  
The grass brushed quietly against Dib's legs. It was a tickling touch, but to his mind it was almost like the blades were feebly trying to hold Dib back. He could almost here the rustlings as whispered warnings, saying "Stay away, go back, before it's too late."  
  
'Too late for what?' Dib wondered.  
  
There! An unmistakably sigh! Dib stopped walking, wondering what was wrong with Zim, who hadn't seemed to notice Dib yet. 'Is this really a trap?' Dib asked himself. 'Could this all be an elaborate act? Or is it something else?'  
  
Every one of Dib's instincts were screaming at him to leave, but despite his nervousness he worked up the courage to make his presence known. "Zim?" he said.  
  
Zim turned to look at Dib, uncrossing his arms. At first he looked surprised, but the emotion left and he said calmly, "Hello Dib. I wasn't expecting to see you." Zim's voice wasn't quite normal. It was definitely Zim's voice, but calm, peaceful, like...Dib couldn't quite understand.  
  
"What are you doing out here?" Dib asked. He sounded confident, but his left hand was gravitating towards his left trench coat pocket.  
  
Zim half smiled. "I don't belong here, and I never did. I'm going back to the stars."  
  
Dib stared at Zim in shock. Was he saying he was leaving? Abandoning Earth and going back to his home planet? It was too good to be true! Dib wouldn't have to worry about Zim destroying Earth, or trying to kill him, or-- Why was he outside if he was leaving??  
  
"If you -are- leaving, how come you aren't inside? Getting your ship ready?" Dib demanded.  
  
Zim said quietly, "I'm not leaving like that." Actually, everything Zim had said that night was quiet. And now Dib could detect another emotion; happiness. So, Zim was happy and quiet and peaceful. Like someone at a funeral who knew their dead loved one was in a better place. Actually, Zim was more like the dead person at the funeral...  
  
'Where did -that- come from?' Dib thought. Dib just couldn't describe Zim.  
  
"Well, if you're not leaving like that, what are you waiting for out here?" Dib asked.  
  
Zim looked towards the sky. "I'm waiting for the right time to leave." He looked at Dib again, and said so quietly he almost couldn't hear it, "It's almost time."  
  
A soft wind blew the words around and around Dib, then carried them away, blowing the grass and staring a whole new chorus of "Stay away," blowing some of the wilting blossoms off nearby trees. Dib shivered, and realized that Zim was no longer standing in front of his, but using his spider-legs to climb up the side of his glowing green house. Dib watched, wondering how to follow him.  
  
Another breeze, this time to Dib's back. His trench coat flapped around him noiselessly. A blossom blew past Dib's face, brushing his cheek. He looked over his shoulder to find the source of it, and saw the tree in front of Zim's house in bloom. A few branches reached the top of Zim's roof.  
  
Dib jogged through the "Stay away" grass to the tree and started climbing it. The rough bark was cold against Dib's cheek, and he shivered as he reached a low branch. He pulled himself onto it, and crawled towards the glowing house. 'Funny, I've never noticed the house glowing before,' Dib though. It was almost like it knew something was going to happen.  
  
He jumped off the branch and landed on the slanted roof of Zim's house. Everything was bathed in the blue-green glow, making everything look the same. The roof wasn't as slanted as it appeared from the ground, so Dib walked easily over to where Zim was standing. He had his hands in pockets on his pants that Dib had never notices before, and he was staring at the full moon.  
  
Dib waited, expecting Zim to say something, but his eyes were still focused on the moon. Except, not exactly focused. He was facing the moon, but he didn't see it. Dib stood beside Zim and looked to the moon too, wondering what Zim saw.  
  
After the longest time, Dib saw Zim nod out of the corner of his eye. "It's time." Dib turned to Zim, wondering how Zim would leave without his ship.  
  
Slowly, Zim withdrew something from his right pocket. Dib leaned forward to see what it was. The moon reflected off... a blade? Of a knife? A chill ran up Dib's spine. So it -was- a trap. Just an elaborate plan to kill a flaw in Zim's takeover. Dib's hand flew to his left trench coat pocket again, where he had hidden a water gun.  
  
As a cloud passed in front of the moon, Zim let his arm fall limply to his side, the long knife dangling in his grasp. "It wasn't time, after all," he said, sounding disappointed, but still so calm, so annoyingly patient, so... depressed.  
  
Dib blinked. Where did -that- come from? Zim -was- calm, yes, and quiet. And he seemed happy. But depressed?  
  
The knife caught Dib's gaze again. His hand reached for his left pocket again, and he said, "So this was a trap."  
  
Zim looked at Dib and slowly shook his head. "I didn't even know you would be here. I gave up on any thoughts of anyone caring about what I did, along with taking over Earth, last night. I didn't think anyone would try to stop me from doing this." Zim laughed dryly. "But, that's not why you're here, is it?"  
  
Something in Zim's voice told Dib he should go, but another told him to stay. Dib's own inner voice was telling him he didn't want to know any more that he already did, but he remained. "What do you mean, 'I gave up on any thoughts of anyone caring about what I did'? Why aren't you trying to take over Earth?"  
  
Zim looked up at the moon, as if looking for an answer to Dib's questions. But he pried his eyes away, and looked at Dib.  
  
"Are you sure you want to know?" Zim asked. Dib nodded, and Zim sighed reluctantly.  
  
"Last night," he began, "I was reporting to the Tallest, my leaders, as usual. I was telling them how my mission to take over Earth was going. They started giving each other funny looks, so I asked them what was wrong. Tallest Purple said, 'There is no mission.' They told me that I was never supposed to come to Operation: Impending Doom II, but since they didn't want to deal with me, they sent me into space with a Voot Cruiser and thought they would never hear from me again." Zim looked up at the stars. "I've always been ignored, rejected, forgotten. When I tried to get attention, I messed up, and others saw me then, but they despised me. I was pushed away even more." Zim looked at Dib again. "Do you know what the Tallest did after they told me that?" he asked. Dib slowly shook his head, wondering what Zim would do if he made too many sudden movements. "They laughed at me. My leaders, the Tallest, laughed at my stupidity." Zim looked down.  
  
"I deserved that," he continued. "I was too naïve, I trusted them too much. I believed that I could be accepted, and I never will be." Zim's voice was low and angry, filled with contempt for the Tallest, or else his own self- loath. "The Tallest forbade me from going back to Irk, or to any planet the Irken Empire controls. And I can't stay here. You Earthens won't accept me. I'm too different. That's just how you work. You don't accept anything except the exact definition of 'normal'." The angry tone left his voice. "There's no place for me here. Or anywhere. So I'm going back to the stars."  
  
Dib didn't think he had quite understood the details to the enigmatic story Zim had told him, but he knew he had gotten the basic idea. "If there's no place for you here, and you're not allowed on your planet, why are you going back to Irk?" Dib asked, by now more curious than afraid of a trap.  
  
"I'm going to the stars, not Irk," Zim said, his voice still as quiet as it had been when Dib had walked up to him and heard him sigh. Had it only been five minutes ago? Dib was beginning to see Zim in a whole new light.  
  
"I'm leaving this world. No this dimension!" Zim's voice was rising now, but it wasn't layered with the power-crazed insanity it had always been. "I'm leaving my mortal bindings, my groundly ties, to reach the stars on my own, to fly among them without the protecting walls of a Voot!" Zim's voice dropped to a whisper. "All I'm waiting for, is the right time to leave."  
  
Dib struggled to understand. "I'm leaving these mortal bindings." Dib knew he knew what was happening, but he pushed it back, not wanting to understand. As Zim raised his head to the moon again, the reality finally slammed into Dib, and he couldn't hold it back. Zim was committing suicide.  
  
Zim was committing suicide.  
  
Zim was committing suicide.  
  
Zim was committing suicide.  
  
Once the thought entered Dib's brain, it was stuck. He had to stop the words...  
  
"NO!" The word ripped from Dib, pulled out like something reached inside and tore it free. And it wasn't done yet. "You can't do this, Zim! So you had a bad day! That's no reason to END it!" Dib paused for a breath, then jumped back in, the unbidden words still coming through his mouth. "Zim, look, I -HATE- you! I hate your -GUTS-! I hate your -MOTHER'S- guts! But you don't have to do this! You could call the Tallest, tell them how you feel and ask for a second chance. You could learn about humans here then move across the country and act like a normal human." Dib sank to his knees, not believing he was trying to help his arch nemesis. The thing that was taking the words from him had gone, leaving Dib energyless. "You... you don't have to do this Zim."  
  
Zim looked at Dib for a long moment, then walked over to Dib, and in the glowing blue-green light Dib could see the confusion written on the alien's face. "Why are you trying to stop me?" he asked.  
  
Dib sighed, not knowing why, but he gave the answer he believed to be closest to the truth. "Because it's the right thing. I can't let you do this."  
  
Zim smiled weakly. "Thanks for trying, Dib, but you're wrong. I do have to do this." He looked at the sky again, once more waiting for something to give him permission to let go.  
  
Dib wearily sank to his knees. How do you stop someone from killing themselves? Every gadget, every lazer, every explosive Dib had ever bought from a magazine or gotten from the Swollen Eyeball or made himself was designed to kill aliens, to hurt them, to capture them. But never to save one.  
  
Dib looked at the stars. The full moon glowed, and there was a silver halo around it. The stars were brighter than Dib had ever seen them before. The glow burned Dib's eyes, until he realized that they weren't burning because of the stars. Dib was crying.  
  
"Zim," Dib pleaded, "Look, you can't do this. You want someone to accept you, right? I'll accept you. I'll be your best friend, for God's sake, but don't do this!"  
  
Zim shook his head and sat down beside Dib. "Dib, you've always been my friend. When no one else thought me worthy enough to pay attention to, you were always trying to expose me. You noticed me. You thought I was important enough to watch, to see what I would do, to get others to notice me."  
  
Zim stood up and clutched the knife tighter. "It's time now. I'm sure."  
  
Dib cried harder. "Don't you feel like this is wrong?" he yelled at Zim. "Don't you feel like you're making a mistake?!"  
  
"Feel?" Zim asked, his voice stone-hard. "I stopped feeling the day I was banished to Foodcourtia because of a mistake! I stopped living a real life when I was sent to Earth to destroy it. No options, no buts. How can one 'live' under those conditions? And I stopped caring about anything yesterday, when my only destiny was ripped up and blown away. How can you ask if I 'feel'?"  
  
Zim raised the knife, ready to stab himself. In desperation, Dib grabbed the only thing he could.  
  
"STOP IT!" he screamed, pointing the water gun at Zim. "You CAN'T do this. I won't let you!"  
  
Zim lowered the knife a fraction of an inch. "What will you do if I don't stop?" Zim asked, he hardness in his voice gone. Dib looked away, still holding the water gun up. Or maybe the water gun was holding Dib up. Nothing made sense.  
  
"Dib, my life has been one loss after another. You can kill me now, and you can be the winner, or you can let me have one victory in a war I've already lost. Your choice."  
  
Dib lowered the water gun, glaring down at his feet.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Dib faced Zim.  
  
"Please, don't use my body in an autopsy lab or 'donate it to science' or something." A single tear rolled down Zim's cheek.  
  
"Please, no..." Dib whispered.  
  
"If the Tallest call, tell them the truth." Another tear, and another.  
  
"Zim, don't..."  
  
"Take care of Gir."  
  
"Stop..."  
  
"Of Tak comes back, tell her she can have Earth." By then Zim was crying as hard as Dib, his tears glistening like dew in the "Stay-away" grass.  
  
"Zim... you're crying. I know you don't want to do this," Dib whispered, trying one last time to stop Zim. "You don't have to do this."  
  
Zim stared at Dib for a second, then covered his face with his hands. Sobs wracked his frail figure. "I don't want to do this," he choked out. "But I don't have a choice!"  
  
Still sobbing, Zim pulled his hands away, and held the knife high. Zim smiled grimly at Dib, and stabbed himself in the heart.  
  
Zim toppled to his side, and Dib caught him. He sat down, and held Zim, feeling the warmth seeping from his body.  
  
Zim's breath shuddered, and he looked up at Dib in pain. "My Irk, I don't want to die," he whispered.  
  
Zim coughed, and blood came out of the corner of his mouth. "Good bye... Dib," he gasped, "my friend." He closed his eyes and whispered, "I can see... the... stars."  
  
Dib wrapped his arms tighter around Zim, and felt his breath slow. Blood seeped from around the knife in Zim's chest, and the metallic red liquid soaked Dib's coat and arms. A lump formed in Dib's throat.  
  
"Good bye, Zim," he croaked around the lump. Zim took a last, weak breath. 'My God,' Dib thought. 'Breath again, Zim. Come back!'  
  
The last of Zim's warmth escaped into the cold spring night.  
  
Invader Zim, of Planet Irk, died at 11:21 p.m., May 24.  
  
"Good bye, Zim," Dib whispered, his tears spent. "Good bye, my only friend." The wind carried the words away from him and Zim's corpse, carried his words through the skinny, pale trees and blossoms, through the coarse grass. The wind whipped dew and fragile blossoms up into the sky, to the haloed moon, and to the stars with Zim's freed soul.  
  
Dib watched the blossoms blow away, and felt as if they were leaving and empty shell of a boy behind. An empty human boy and an Irken body, alone on the glowing green roof.  
  
For a fleeting second, in the green light, the two beings looked the same.  
  
As of they always had been. Deep down...  
  
"No," Dib said to himself. "We're not the same. I'll never do what Zim did. I'll never cause pain. I'll dedicate my life to stopping hurt, for myself and others. No matter what."  
  
Dib got up and, with a final glance at Zim's body, left.  
  
~*~  
  
So... review. As I said, that was not intended to be a slashy in any way, and if I continue this story, there will be no romance at all. Except the brief reference to Devi/Nny  
  
The continuation is about how Dib is affected by Zim's death, and his vow to stop pain. His intentions are good, but he gets a little... weird. The continuation is about the origins of Johnny. You guessed it. Dib is to become Johnny. C'mon, don't tell me you didn't see it. And, indeed, Nny's intentions are good. You don't have to have read JtHM for the continuation to make since. If you haven't, this story is just the evolution of a killer.  
  
To get the continuation, I need five signed reviews, and two anonymous reviews are equal to one signed. The reviews can be flames, praise, constructive criticism, rambles, or anything. Those votes are to tell me that people read this fanfic. Also, there have to be more praises than flames, or equal flames and praises. Constructive criticism and rambles don't count in this category. So, if I get one ramble, two constructive, one praise, and one flame, I'll post the continuation. Confused yet? Good, I am too. Just flame, praise, ramble, or whatever. But, if you want the continuation w/ Dib as Nny, you have to praise me! An' you can ramble too, or something, of you want.  
  
Now, you're probably wondering, 'Why's she going to all the trouble, instead of just adding the stupid continuation?' The answer is... I dunno. Just to make sure that people will read the continuation, I guess. ^-^;;;  
  
Chow!  
  
~Funeral 


	2. Ch2 Funeral for the Living

A/N: I got so many reviews... Thanx! I got seven-and-a-half, and all of them said they wanted the continuation, or that they liked my story, or that they were expecting a continuation. So... I'm gonna write it!  
  
To my reviewers:  
  
Ckret2: My first review... *cries* THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!! I'm glad you like my story!  
  
Soul Eater: A classic "keep at it" review. Thanks.  
  
Mega-Obskira: Sad, deep, and nice? Gee, that's so sweet of you! That was what I was aiming at!  
  
janey-the-suicidal-maniac: You signed in to prove you'll read my continuation? Awww, how sweet! *huggles janey*  
  
Marina: THERE'S A JtHM MOVIE!?!?! WHERE!?!?! I'm sorry I made you cry, and I didn't want to kill Zim... he's the best character. He's gonna take over the world. But, this fic is about Dib, and if Zim was alive, this fic would never happen 'cause Dib would be in an Irken Concentration Camp. 'Cause Zim would take over the world...  
  
Elenar: Well, I'm here to make you happy, ironically, so I'm gonna write the continuation! Whoot!  
  
Maran Zelde: Thanks for the compliments! I actually added the grass and the blossoms in after I had written the fic. I noticed that, in every angst fic I've ever read, there's something symbolic. In this story, it's the grass and the flowers, and if you noticed, the dew and the wind. But, yeah, mostly the grass and flowers.  
  
Mars: Fanfic heaven? Whoo, I didn't know it was THAT good! Thanks!  
  
Silent Knight: Thanks for your two reviews! And thanks for the advice. I'll try to draw out the plot more, if that'll help make my story better. But it's haaaard!  
  
I would also like to say that if you see any words written with weird things, like this: ]*[!, that means that it's a cuss word, and I wrote it in 1337, or elite. Okay? Goooooooood, now we've cleared that up!  
  
So, now for part two!  
  
Disclaimer: I own the plot, and nothing else. And that's it. Nyaa! *sticks tongue out* However, if anyone would like to let me have the show, I'd gladly take it. I'll be happy if I can get one of the characters.  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Funeral for the Living (^-^)  
  
Dib sat in front of his house for awhile. He had just seen Zim die. He couldn't just leave Zim's body up there... he had to go get it. Dib got up and started walking back to Zim's house. The haloed moon hid behind a cloud, and it started raining again, a slow foreboding drizzle, just like the one at Skool, when Dib had noticed Zim acting weird. Darn rain. Dib would never have had to see Zim killing himself if it hadn't been for the rain.  
  
Dib approached Zim's house again. It had stopped glowing. Dib walked cautiously up to the tree. Funny, earlier that night, Dib had had much more to fear if he climbed that tree. Zim could have had a trap, but Dib climbed eagerly. Now, with no physical danger whatsoever, Dib was afraid to climb the tree.  
  
Dib glared into the boughs of the tree. If it hadn't been for the tree, he never would have seen Zim die. He wouldn't have been able to get up. Now Dib climbed it again. He hated the tree. He hated the rain. He hated himself for not stopping Zim.  
  
On the roof, Dib saw a figure with an umbrella hunched over Zim's body. As Dib approached, the figure turned to look at Dib with aqua eyes. "Why isn't Master waking up?" Gir asked quietly. "He said he was leaving earlier, and then he want outside. I went out to see if he was okay a few minutes ago, and when I got here it started raining. I pulled out my umbrella to protect him, so he wouldn't get hurt."  
  
The irony of Gir's efforts made Dib chuckle sadly. " 'Master' won't be waking up for a while, Gir. We should bring him inside."  
  
Gir nodded, and held the umbrella over Dib's head as he aquardly picked Zim's body up. Trying to hold Zim, Dib realized that the knife in Zim's chest was sticking up and making it hard to hold the alien corpse. Dib pulled the knife out. It slid easily, revealing a long tapered blade. Even through the blood, the knife practically shone with its own light. In short, it was a really nice knife. "Woah..." Dib breathed. Such a well- crafted thing, to cause such pain. Dib looked at the handle, and found a miniature planet carved into the side, with the Irken symbol designed to look like it was zooming off of the planet. Dib wiped the blade off on his shirt, since his shirt was already soaked with Zim's blood and a little more wouldn't hurt, and slipped it in his left trench coat pocket.  
  
Dib, followed a little too closely by Gir, climbed down the tree again and walked up to Zim's front door. He opened it and walked inside, ashamed at how he was waltzing around Zim's house like it was his own. He set Zim's body down on the couch in front of the TV, then turned to Gir.  
  
"Gir," he said. "Listen to me. You can't touch Zim's bo-- erm, I mean Zim, while he's... asleep. I've got a few of phone calls to make, okay?"  
  
Gir nodded.  
  
"Oh, by the way," Dib added, "can I stay here overnight?"  
  
Gir shrugged. "Sure, as long as you don't wake Master up. He's sleeping."  
  
Dib picked up the phone and dialed in 1-555-555-9100. (If you know what number that is, kudos to you!)  
  
The phone rang three times, then someone picked up, and an obviously disguised voice answered. "Hello?"  
  
"This is Mothman," Dib said. "I've called about the..." Dib glanced over at Zim's corpse. "The Spider."  
  
"Really? Has it got you in its web?" The voice asked, sounding concerned.  
  
"No no!" Dib said quickly. "I'm fine. I just wanted to tell you that, that, I'm not going to be trying to catch him anymore."  
  
"Then, you caught the Spider?" the voice asked.  
  
"No I'm..." Dib struggled for words. "I'm just... Giving up on the Spider. And I don't think I'll be coming to the weekly Eyeball meetings for awhile. I've got some... personal business to go through."  
  
"Oh?" the voice asked. "Like what? A death in the family?"  
  
Dib glanced at Zim again. "Close enough."  
  
"Alright," the voice said again. "Good bye, Mothman. And may your eyes stay swollen." The line went dead.  
  
Next, Dib called his house, and left a message on the answering machine telling Gaz and his dad where he was. Not that they'd care.  
  
Then, Dib called the local mortuary and told them to come and get Zim's body at eight the next morning. Dib would see to it that Zim got a proper burial. He had had a bad enough life, he didn't need to be cut up after he died.  
  
Dib looked at the blank TV screen, and saw his reflection. His reflection shocked himself. Was that the boy who had wanted to see Zim dead, no matter what? Who had wanted him torn apart, sewn back together, then ripped up again? Dib couldn't see that boy at all. The boy in the reflection was tired, forlorn, and alone. He had emptiness in his eyes that no person should ever have.  
  
Dib looked down at his blood-covered coat. His eyes blurred with tears. Covering his face with his hands, he cried. "It's all Zim's fault," Dib whispered. "It's Zim's fault this happened to me. I hate him. Zim, be grateful you're dead because if you weren't, I'd kill you myself."  
  
Dib sat in silence. "No, it's not Zim's fault," he whispered. "He didn't do anything. It was everyone else who killed him, everyone else who hurt me." Dib looked up again. "I promised I'd stop the hurt in the world. I won't stop the pain; I'll stop the starters of pain. I don't care what the others think of me, just as long as I'm able to help them."  
  
With that thought in mind, Dib sat down on the floor and leaned against the couch. He took off his trench coat and used it as a blanket, then tried to fall asleep. He finally drifted off, listening to the hollow tap of rain on the once-glowing house.  
  
...............................  
  
Dib woke up around 7:56. He got up, wondering why his back was so stiff, then glanced at his reflection in the TV again. Oh. He was still at Zim's house. Then the doorbell rang.  
  
Dib stiffened and stared at the door. The people from the mortuary! Dib couldn't let them see Zim without his disguise on! I mean, even if it was just his body, Dib didn't want them to send the body to a science place. "Gir!" Dib yelled. Gir fell out of a hole in the ceiling in Red-Mode.  
  
"Yes, my Ma-- Oh, Dib. What is it?" he asked, switching abruptly from Red- Mode to Blue.  
  
"I need to know where Zim's disguise is," Dib said quickly. "There are some Earthens outside who aren't allowed to see Zim without it."  
  
Gir nodded, and pulled Zim's disguise out of the top of is head. "Here ya go!"  
  
Dib looked at Gir. "How do you fit so much stuff into your head?"  
  
"It all goes to a Room with a Moose!" Gir said.  
  
Dib looked from Zim to the disguise in his hand. He had to put it... on Zim? On a dead corpse?? Looking the other way, Dib put the wig on Zim's head. Dib, technically speaking, was freaked out and embarrassed. Now, Dib had to get Zim's contacts in.  
  
......  
  
Dib opened the door sheepishly. "Hi, um, you've come here for Zim's body? Sorry it, um, took so long to answer the door."  
  
"That's my job, to get the body. Take you're time," the man said. "So where is Zim?"  
  
Dib pointed inside. The man walked in, and saw Zim on the couch. "You haven't got him a coffin?" the man asked Dib.  
  
Dib blinked. "I didn't think of that... And he just died last night."  
  
"By the way, what happened to him?" the man from the mortuary asked, pulling out a clipboard with a few pieces of paper.  
  
"Pardon?" Dib asked.  
  
"How did he die?" the man repeated. "I have to know some basic info about the person who died."  
  
"Oh, it was," Dib paused, wondering if he should tell the man. "I don't know how he died, actually. I was just walking by, and I saw his body."  
  
"Okaaaaaay," the man said, looking at Dib suspiciously. "Does he have any, say, friends or relatives that I could talk to?"  
  
Dib shook his head. "I don't know who his parents are, and I'm, well, I was his only friend." Dib was shocked at how easily those words came. He and Zim really were closer to the same on the inside than Dib had thought. They really might have been friends, if Dib had seen what Zim was like earlier.  
  
"Okay, so, what's his name?" the man asked.  
  
"Huh? Oh, Zim."  
  
"Last name?"  
  
"Uh..." Dib thought for moment. Zim had been an Invader, until the Tallest banished him. Zim probably would like for his gravestone to call him an Invader. "His last name is Invader. He's Zim Invader."  
  
The man wrote that down. "What was his age?"  
  
"Uh... Twelve?"  
  
"Okay, when is his birthday?"  
  
Dib tried to remember when Zim had first landed on Earth. That could be kind of symbolic, if Dib told the man that the day Zim landed was Zim's birthday... "His birthday is March 30."  
  
The man wrote that down. "Any other notes about him?"  
  
"Zim's an alien," Dib said automatically.  
  
"Sure he is," the man from the mortuary said. "Why don't you run home now?"  
  
Dib sighed and left.  
  
....  
  
Dib walked home quietly, thinking. 'I wonder what the kids at skool will think when they hear Zim's dead,' he thought. 'Will they even care, or will they just brush it off? I was, I guess, Zim's only friend, so no one will be mourning. Except Keef, maybe.'  
  
Dib stepped in a puddle, left over from the rain. It was still cloudy, and Dib was glad. He knew he couldn't bear the bright sunlight right then. Too cheerful.  
  
Dib opened the door and went inside his house. "I'm home!" Dib yelled. "Did anyone notice I was missing? Or did anyone notice the message on the answering machine?"  
  
Gaz looked up at Dib from her game. "Shut up, Dib. I've been playing Mongoose Mysteries for thirty minutes, and I'm only on level twenty-five. I saw on TV that the champion beat all one hundred levels in an hour. I have to work fast to break that record."  
  
Dib sighed. "When I start stopping pain starters, I'm starting with you, Gaz," he told her.  
  
Gaz grunted.  
  
Dib walked to the basement. "Dad, did you notice I was missing?"  
  
Professor Membrane poured some blue chemical into a vile with red chemicals. It turned green. "Well, I was assuming you'd be gone, since you're supposed to be at skool."  
  
Dib gasped. "I forgot! It's Tuesday! Wait... Why isn't Gaz at skool?"  
  
Prof. Membrane picked up a bottle with some radioactive-looking stuff. "The skool received word that a student died and had no parents to pay for a funeral, so the skool is paying for it, and it'll be held in Gaz's classroom, so the students in her class get to stay home. To pay for the funeral, the skool board is taking money from our taxes, so there will be higher taxes this month. Since I need all my money for research, it'll have to come out of your allowance." He poured the radioactive stuff into the green stuff. It turned pink. "I think I've just discovered the cure for the common cold! CALL THE PRESS!!!"  
  
Dib ran up the stair, to his room, grabbed his backpack, and was gone before the press arrived.  
  
......  
  
Dib ran into Mrs. Bitters' class at 8:46, 26 minutes after the bell rang. "I'm sorry *huffhuff* that I'm so *huffpuff* late, Mrs. *huff* Bitters," Dib said, sliding into his seat.  
  
Mrs. Bitters narrowed an eye at Dib. "I've warned you there would be consequences for being late, Dib. So, for punishment, you will have to taste-test the cafeteria food for poison EVERY DAY for the next twenty years of your life."  
  
Dib sighed. 'After I'm finished with Gaz, I'm starting on teachers,' he thought.  
  
"Now, class," Mrs. Bitters said, "as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Zim died and since we're in his class, we're all going to his funeral at nine o' clock. Anyone who doesn't go will have to kiss Zim's dead lips, so you'd all better be there."  
  
Dib shuddered with repulsion. Mrs. Bitters was a sick, sick, lady. Oh so . . . sick.  
  
"It's 8:50 now, so if we want to make it to the funeral in time we're going to have to leave and run the whole way, because a third grader dropped a radioactive chemical in Hallway A that we're going to have to go around." Mrs. Bitters pulled down a map, and showed a winding path throughout the school. Dib walked up to the map and looked at it closely.  
  
"Why do we have to go on that path?" Dib asked. "The class room we need to go in is just down the hall. And we don't even NEED to go to Hallway A!"  
  
Mrs. Bitters leaned down in Dib's face and said, "I don't need to explain my logic, I'm the teacher." She turned to the rest of the class and said, "All right, let's go! We don't have all day!"  
  
While the rest of the class jumped out of their seats and started following the route Mrs. Bitters had given them, Dib walked the other way and got to Gaz's class in about five seconds. When the rest of the class arrived, huffing and puffing (about eight minutes later), Mrs. Bitters slithered up to Dib and growled in his face, "You didn't follow the class, Dib. You will be PUNIIIIIIIISHED!"  
  
"Oooooooo, he's gonna get it now!" The Letter M said. (I don't really know who any of the kids in Mrs. Bitters class are, except Dib, Zim, Tak (for one show), and Zita, but I know a lot of names.)  
  
Dib glared at The Letter M. "Do you ENJOY other people's torture? HUH?!? Have any of you ever seen a person bleed to death, other than in the movies?"  
  
"That's enough, Dib," Mrs. Bitters said. "For punishment, you will spend the next ten years of your life," dum dum duuum, "CLEANING TOILETS!"  
  
"Okay," Dib said.  
  
Mrs. Bitter's jaw dropped. "That doesn't scare you?"  
  
"Nothing scares me anymore. There is nothing you can do to me that can, in any way, scare me. You can gross me out, or make me mad, but you can't scare me," Dib said.  
  
Mrs. Bitters glared at Dib. "Okay, you don't have to clean toilets. But I will find something worse for you to do. Now, everyone, in the room and find your seats!"  
  
Everyone in Mrs. Bitter's class walked in the classroom, to find someone had lined up all the chairs like pews, and that three desks had been pushed together to hold a coffin. Dib looked at the coffin and almost lost his lunch.  
  
After everyone had sat down, Mrs. Bitters stepped in front of the coffin and said, "Now, we didn't hire a preacher for Zim, so we decided to get the person who knows the most about Zim to talk about him. And, that person is . . ." Mrs. Bitters squinted at a paper. "Dib Membrane."  
  
Surprised, Dib said the first thing that came to mind. "My last name isn't Membrane."  
  
"It isn't?" Mrs. Bitters said skeptically. "But that's your father's last name."  
  
"Yeah, but I got my mom's last name. Gaz's last name is Dad's, and my last name is Mom's."  
  
"That's very nice," Mrs. Bitters said sarcastically. "So what is you last name?"  
  
"Carler," Dib said.  
  
"Alright then," Mrs. Bitters said. "Dib Carler, get up here. You have to talk about Zim's life and stuff for the funeral."  
  
Dib reluctantly got out of his seat and walked to the front of the classroom, where the coffin was. Mrs. Bitters sat down in her own seat.  
  
At the front of the classroom, everyone glared at Dib. He gulped, and started talking. "First of all, I want to say that I am not going to accuse Zim of being an alien once during this whole funeral." Some of the glares lessened. "And second, I would like to say that even though Zim's death was recorded as murder, it was a suicide. I saw it with my own eyes." Several kids who hadn't been paying attention looked up with interest. They obviously wanted the gory details.  
  
Dib sighed. "To start, have you ever felt like your life was a lie?" Some kids actually nodded, God bless them. "Zim did. And I never noticed. ])4]\/[]\[ me. Now, has anyone here ever felt like their life was a lie, and then found out it really was?" No one nodded. "Zim did. He's been tricked about everything his whole life. And he found out Sunday night. Yesterday, he committed suicide. And, this is where we get to the details of the actual death. Not as gory as I think most of you think it is, but it's not that clean a death, either."  
  
Dib looked at the class to see how they were reacting. They were all watching him with interest. "Well, he had been acting weird on Monday, and I thought he was up to something. I'm NOT going to say he's an alien, but I thought he was going to do something bad. I didn't know what, though. So, that night at eleven, I got out of bed and went to his house. I'm not proud of it, but I was going to sneak in and kidnap him to find out what he was up to. But he was outside, standing by his house. when I came over, he seemed surprised to see me, but he was calm. More calm and quiet that I'd ever seen him before. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going back to the stars. I thought he was going to the moon or something, so I asked him how the heck he was going to get into outer space without a spaceship. He didn't answer. He climbed to the top of his house, and I followed. He stared at the stars for awhile, then . . . he pulled a knife out. He said it was time to go. He was about to stab himself when a cloud passed over the moon. He put the knife down, and said that it wasn't time, after all. I asked him what on Earth was going on, and so he told me.  
  
"His life had been a lie, the two people he trusted most hated him, and he was ridiculed by . . . the country he had come from. Yeah. That's all the details I'm sharing though.  
  
"I told him he didn't have to kill himself because of one bad day. I told him that if he wanted a friend, I'd be his friend. He said that by paying attention to him, by noticing him and trying to get others to notice him, I had already proved that I was his friend." Dib's eyes started watering. "Then, he finally decided that the time was right, and he killed himself. I watched, I held him while he died." Dib's eyes, still watery, scanned the class to see how they were reacting. "Zim showed me a side of himself that I had never seen before. I'm changed. The part of me that hated him, the part of me that hated ANY thing, died with him. This may be Zim's funeral, but it's also a funeral for the man I used to be. This is a funeral for the dead, and a funeral for the living."  
  
The class watched as Dib continued, awed. "I'm tired of everyone hurting everyone else. I'm going to dedicate my life to stopping hurt and pain." Dib looked at the hushed class proudly, glad that he, after all the ridicule, could get them to listen. Then:  
  
"I'll bet you won't get much pay for that, Dib."  
  
A kid snorted, then the whole class started laughing. Dib stared at them, hurt. Okay, so what could he say now that would make them change? Well? What was there to say that could make a group stop hurting you?  
  
As Dib watched the kids laugh at him, he looked at the question another way. What could he say that would make anyone change? How would he stop people from causing pain? Well? Talk to them about their problems over a cup of tea? There was no way to stop pain. No way. Dib started crying.  
  
As the tears flowed, the class gradually stopped laughing and looked at Dib. "Hey, do you think maybe we were a little harsh?" someone asked.  
  
Dib glared at the class. "You make me sick," he said. "Sick, sick, sick. I hate you all. Every one of you."  
  
Dib ran from the classroom. The kids were just starting to regret what they had done, when someone said, "Yes, I hateses you all, Bitterses class. We hateses them, my preciousssssss."  
  
The class laughed again. Dib would never get sympathy from them.  
  
......  
  
In the restroom, Dib locked himself in a stall and cried. He hated them, hated them, hated them. And he hated himself, for not being able to do anything about the pain. A permanent marker was on the ground, and Dib picked it up. On the wall, he wrote "Dib J. Carler: Loser of the Year."  
  
Sighing, he left the stall. He could stop the pain somehow.  
  
Somehow.  
  
~*~  
  
Okay, that's it for Chapter 2! I hope all my fans like it! Heh, I have fans . . .  
  
So, now you see why this chapter is called "Funeral for the Living"? Good. Actually, I never planned on naming a chapter after me, and I didn't choose my name to go into the chapter. It just popped up.  
  
And, no one really knows Dib's last name. I read on -the- Nickelodeon site, in the IZ section, (it takes so long to load!) that no one knows Dib's last name. You can go to the site and find out for yourself. It's under the info of either Dib, or Professor Membrane. I forgot which. But I know FOR A FACT that his last name isn't Membrane. 


	3. Ch3 Wacky

Hi! I got more reviews . . . thanx! Oh, and I realized AFTER I had posted Chapter 2 that I have more than 7 reviews . . . to everyone else that reviewed, sorry.  
  
Silent Knight, in response to your review: Oh my God! I didn't know that I was using "mortgage" instead of "mortuary!" I am sooooooo stupid! But, everyone knows what I meant, right? Good. And if I do something like that again, feel free to bop me over the head, 'kay?  
  
Here's a little note: If you don't like excessive violence, don't read this chapter. Or any following ones. You have mass killing from this chapter on, though this chapter is the most graphic.  
  
BTW, I found a site that sells the FULL COLLECTION of IZ shows on DVD. Unfortunately, they're selling it illegally. But, if there are people that don't mind, go order 'em at www.tooncollection.com ! Or maybe it was toonfavorites . . .  
  
And now . . . Chapter 3!  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 3: Wacky  
  
Day after day, Dib trudged through the winding hallways of school, being generally picked on, beat up, and publicly humiliated for no reason. All the kids actually believed that he had given up his obsession with the paranormal, so they no longer called him "crazy" for that reason. But, they found others.  
  
Dib didn't think he could take any more.  
  
2 Weeks Later . . .  
  
"Hi Gollum!" a kid called after Dib. Dib doubted the boy even knew his name. "Jus' go away," Dib muttered. He had stopped fighting against the skoolkids' insults, but mentally put the whole skool on his waiting list for "correction." Dib still wondered if he could ever actually find a way to stop pain. He had thought of one way, though. Instead of stopping pain- starters' ways, just stop them period. He still had Zim's knife in his pocket.  
  
Dib was in the hallway just outside his classroom, going to lunch. Not that he ate. He was just following rules.  
  
As Dib entered the cafeteria, all the other kids stopped eating and stared at him, then started giggling. "What?" Dib asked, and got no response. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat???"  
  
He glanced at the windows, and saw a banner covered half of them with his face on it that said "DIB IS WACKY DAY! Show our loony friend how much we 'appreciate' him by making sure he knows he's off his rocker!"  
  
All of the students in the cafeteria turned to Dib and said, "YOU'RE WACKY!"  
  
Dib stared at them, annoyed and a little hurt. But, he just went to the food line and ignored them. Unfortunately, when he got to his seat it started again.  
  
"Wacky!" Torq (did I spell his name right?) said, pushing Dib's head down into his meal. Worst of all, it was beef and pistachio ice cream day. Dib got up and wiped is face off, acting like nothing had happened.  
  
"Hey!" Torq yelled. "Did you hear what I said? Huh?" Torq dunked Dib's head again, to great laughter.  
  
"Yes, I heard what you said very well," Dib said, trying to keep his cool. Torq laughed.  
  
"Isn't he wacky?!" Torq said. The cafeteria screamed "yes". "Well, tell him so!"  
  
Dib could only sit and listen as the students insulted him.  
  
"You're so wacky."  
  
"You're totally wacky, Dib."  
  
"Dib, you're wacky."  
  
"You're wacky."  
  
"You're wacky."  
  
"Wacky."  
  
"Wacky."  
  
"WACKY!"  
  
Dib couldn't take it any more. He stood up with his spork clutched tightly in his hand, and scream, "Don't call me wacky!" The students laughed.  
  
"Why shouldn't they, Dib? After all, you are sooooooo . . ."  
  
"Don't call me that," Dib whispered through his teeth, turning to face Torq.  
  
" . . . Wacky."  
  
Dib drove the spork into Torq's eyeball. He fell over and started to scream in pain as Dib dragged the spork around, stirring up his eye. Unfortunately, the spork broke. But Dib still had the Knife. The one that had killed Zim. The knife would taste blood once more. Dib brought the knife down swiftly and decapitated Torq.  
  
He stood up slowly. Killing was the only way to stop pain. So, Dib would kill. He turned to the silenced cafeteria. "None of you will ever be calling me wacky again," Dib said. Then he killed.  
  
He killed them all. He wanted them dead, wanted them dead, wanted them dead. Dead, dead, dead. So, Dib killed them all. The knife sliced easily, gracefully, and as Dib worked on the panicky kids, his carefully crafted hair fell down, so that all his hair was limp except for the scythe. Blood covered Dib. He was a killer, a murderer, someone who hurt.  
  
And Dib liked it.  
  
~*~  
  
Dib was finally done. None had escaped.  
  
He heard alarms approaching the skool. Time for Dib to make his exit.  
  
He ran to the nearest door, and opened it to see his Dad.  
  
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Dib asked.  
  
"I heard someone was killing here, and so I was called to investigate!"  
  
Professor Membrane looked at the cafeteria full of people. Dead people. Membrane gasped.  
  
"Dib J. Carler, WHAT on EARTH HAPPENED here!??!?!" he screamed.  
  
Dib looked up at his dad. Dib was the name of a paranormal freak. He wasn't one anymore. "My name isn't Dib, Dad."  
  
"Well, what on Earth IS it?"  
  
"I'm going by my middle name. My name is Johnny C."  
  
"Oh, fine," Professor Membrane said. "So, what happened here, Johnny C.?"  
  
Dib froze up. He couldn't tell his dad that it had been him who had killed all the people. Dib wracked his brain for something weird to say. "It . . . was a yeti!" Dib said, knowing his dad would think he was crazy.  
  
Sure enough, Membrane cocked his eyebrows in fake interest. "A . . . yeti?"  
  
"Yeah!" Dib said enthusiastically. "He didn't get me 'cause I had a . . . a spork with me! I drove it through his heart, and he died 'cause he's allergic to plastic."  
  
Membrane stared at Dib. "My poor son. You're in shock because of what you witnessed. We'll get you to a hospital."  
  
"'Kay," Dib said, glad that that was over with. He walked out the door just as some paramedics were rushing in to see of any of the students could be saved. They couldn't. Dib had made sure of that.  
  
~*~  
  
So, how do you like? It's the third chapter, and the shortest, and just so ya know, next chapter will be what happened before all this, on the day Zim learned the Truth. It's a prologue to the rest of the story, and I just thought I would add it because. So! Review review review. 


	4. A note! I hate notes!

Hi! It's me, Funeral!  
  
Now, I know that practically everyone thinks that this is the end. Well, IT'S NOT! We still have a lot to go, including;  
  
An appearance of Devi and an explanation of where Tenna came from, why she's so hyper, and why someone so hyper an' bubbly has a skeleton doll.  
  
The origins of Nailbunny, Mr. Eff, and Psycho Doughboy.  
  
Where exactly Zim is, among the stars and planets.  
  
And the reason Nny doesn't have a family, despite the fact that Dib does, and why Nny never thinks about Gaz and Prof. Membrane.  
  
All that, and MORE!! And the last chappy will be named "Epilogue," so you can tell when it's over. I promise it won't be over until you read the chapter called "Epilogue." I won't be able to write for awhile, so don't expect the REAL chapter 4 for awhile.  
  
~Funeral 


	5. Ch4 Gaz and Spooky

Hi all. It is I, with another chapter. Yay, or something. Yeah . . . SO! Here's chapter 4!  
  
And, in response to my reviews, someone (forgot who) said she thought I was basically giving up on the story and turning it into a B movie. Well, no, I'm not. It was reeeaaally hard for me to write that chapter, 'cause one of the few things I can't write really well (the others being romance and action scenes) is suspense. But, the spork/knife incident was just a turning point in the fic. It's where Dib BEGINS to become Nny. He won't actually be our favorite homicidal maniac for a few chapters more. He's just developing right now. He's a killer, but he's still got a family, a house that ISN'T house 777, he doesn't love Brainfreezies, he hasn't got a vampire moose in his basement, or whatever that thing is, and he isn't crazily philosophical. So we have quite a ways to go before Dib is Johnny, even if that's what he calls himself. And, remember it's not over until you read the Epilogue!  
  
Another note: I'll be adding a prologue, which is where Zim learns the truth. Once again, I stink at suspense, so it'll probably be not very good. I'm not gonna stick this at the beginning of the fic, because that'll mess up the whole order of things. Sorta. So! It's up to your vote! Do I a) post the prologue in the MIDDLE of this fic, b) post it at the END of this fic (not a good idea) or c) post it as a SEPARATE story? It's up to you!  
  
And, the last chapter was not a repeat of the "wacky" incident; this is the first ever "wacky" incident. This explains why Nny hates the word "wacky" so much. That word made him what he is. And, for the people that haven't read JtHM before, just enjoy the story! It's a good fic (in my opinion) without the actual JtHM/IZ crossover. If you haven't read JtHM and you've just seen IZ, think of this as Dib falling down the well of insanity, and bringing everyone else down with him. Okay? And, I have a confession to make. Not here, at the bottom of the chapter. Read this chapter first.  
  
And, finally, Johnny has killed an entire room full of people before. Yep. I forgot where, but he killed about ten people in a building, then set off a bomb and ran out. He then started dancing to "Ode to Joy" as the bomb detonated. And he's done other things. Besides, we're talking about Dib. The boy who got to Mercury in five minutes using an old monkey ship. C'mon, I KNOW you remember that episode. Right? Right? Riiiiiight?  
  
And there's violence in this chapter too, but all that's mentioned is blood. A lot. No descriptions of a mutilated man or anything, 'kay? Good.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own a SINGLE bit of this fic except the Knife. Nope. Nuttin' else.  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 4: Gaz and Spooky  
  
"Okay, son," Professor Membrane said, "I'll call you Johnny. But why do want to change your name?"  
  
"Dib is the name of a ridiculous boy who obsesses in the paranormal. I am no longer that boy," Dib said, perhaps a little too melodramatically.  
  
Professor Membrane perked up, and seemed to forget about the other kids for a moment. "Son, you mean to tell me that you're going into real scie--"  
  
"No, Dad," Dib said, sighing at his father's persistence. "I'm not going into real science. I'm helping the world by making sure the people that cause pain don't."  
  
"Oh?" Membrane said. "How?"  
  
Dib glanced at the cafeteria full of bodies. "I haven't figured that out yet."  
  
........................  
  
Gaz looked up from her GameSlave as she heard the door opened. 'Please let that be Dad,' Gaz thought, 'or a salesman, or Iggins, or anyone but him . . .'  
  
"Gaz!" a voice cried, and a pit formed in Gaz's stomach. "I'm back! Is Dad here?"  
  
"No, Di-- uh, Johnny," Gaz called.  
  
"Good," Dib said. "I can bring my coat in."  
  
Gaz took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. 'Please let me survive tonight,' she prayed. 'Please, don't let him kill me.' Gaz thought back to when this all began, several weeks ago.  
  
.. ::Flashback:: ..  
  
Several weeks ago, Gaz was playing her GameSlave, as she was now.  
  
"Gaz, I'm going out tonight," Dib said. "I'll be back in a few hours. Don't tell Dad where I am, okay?"  
  
"Whatever, Dib," Gaz grunted, never looking up from her game. "Dad won't even ask where you are. Unless today's the Annual Family Night Out, which was five weeks ago anyway. I doubt it's been a year yet, Dib."  
  
"My name's not Dib," Dib said, annoyed. "It's Johnny."  
  
"Fine."  
  
About thirty minutes later, Professor Membrane came home. "Gaz, where is your brother?"  
  
"I dunno," Gaz said, who was on Level 93 and didn't want to be bothered.  
  
"Well, tonight's next year's Family Night Out, because I'll be busy next years discovering the cure for the common cold. Go find your brother!"  
  
Gaz grunted angrily, but she didn't want to miss Family Night so she reluctantly saved and turned of her game. "I'll go find him."  
  
...  
  
"Dib!" Gaz called. "Dib? Where are you?"  
  
She had been wandering around for about an hour, and was closer to the prison known as Skool that she would have liked to be. "Dib? Johnny?"  
  
She heard a shriek between to buildings, in a narrow alleyway. "No! Stop! I'm sorry!"  
  
"Yes, you ARE sorry, AREN'T YOU??" a voice screamed. "You're ALWAYS sorry when it's too late!"  
  
Another shriek. Gaz followed the voices. Maybe she'd get to see a mugging. Or something.  
  
Looking down the alleyway, she saw her brother. That was the first thing she noticed. Her brother, then she noticed the other man, screaming. Then she noticed how Dib's hair was down except for the single spike (think Nny's hair with a Dib-scythe). Then she noticed the knife.  
  
Then the blood. All the blood. Blood on the man, blood on Dib's trench coat, blood on the ground, blood on the knife. The knife was going in and out. In and out. In and out. Gaz started getting woozy. In and out.  
  
Her vision swam. She groaned and fell over. In and out. She thought she heard her name. She closed her eyes and wretched. In and out. In and out.  
  
Gaz fainted.  
  
..................  
  
Gaz shuddered at the memory. She had learned that Dib killed one person who had hurt him in his life, every night. He would eventually run out of other people, and turn to his sister as the next victim. Gaz didn't doubt that. Dib walked in, grinning from ear to ear. "I got Mrs. Bitters today!" He said enthusiastically. "Can you believe it? Mrs. Bitters herself! I actually made a difference in the lives of all the people that would have been in her class otherwise!"  
  
'Assuming you leave any of her students alive,' Gaz thought. 'How can you be so happy about killing people?'  
  
"So, tomorrow, I'm going after, well, I dunno," Dib said. "The Mayor? What do you think, Gaz?"  
  
"I just think this whole town is wacky," Gaz said quietly, and paled when Dib started glaring at her.  
  
"What did you say?" Dib asked, growling. Gaz whimpered. "JEEZ, can't ANYONE see what an AWFUL WORD that is? Well?? The OTHERS at Skool called me wacky. They WOULDN'T STOP! They used that word, that SIMPLE WORD, as a weapon against me. They hurt ME when I never did anything to THEM. I'm glad they're gone now."  
  
Dib turned to Gaz, who braced herself. "Ah, but I don't want to hurt you," he said calmly. "You're my sister. I would never dream of hurting you. Hey, in fact . . ." Dib reached into his right pocket. "I've got . . . a . . . where is it?" Dib pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket. "Oh, here it is." Dib handed the bag to Gaz. "I bought this for you and left it in its bag, so I wouldn't get blood on it. I guess it's okay anyway."  
  
Gaz eyed Dib, then opened the bag. Inside was a skeleton doll. She looked at it and smiled.  
  
"I got it because I feel really bad about Bitey," Dib said. "It squeaks when you squeeze it."  
  
Gaz gave her doll a test squeak. "Thanks, Johnny. I'll name it Spooky." Dib grinned. "Okay then. So, bye, I'm off to get the mayor!" Dib left.  
  
The air of peace in the room left. Gaz suddenly remembered that her brother was a serial killer. Gaz swore, when she saw the look on Dib's face when she had said "wacky," well, she knew in her heart that Dib could kill her. She had to leave. That night.  
  
......  
  
Gaz climbed out her bedroom window, Spooky and her GameSlave clutched in one hand, her suitcase filled with clothes and money in the other. She hoped Dib didn't hear her as she slid down the drainpipe. She hoped Dib didn't see her as she ran across the street. She hoped Dib didn't find her as she hid downtown in an alleyway. She'd have to find somewhere to live. At least for a short time.  
  
...  
  
The next morning, Gaz got up and wandered around downtown, looking for a place to eat. She stopped in front of a TV store, where they were showing some Halloween show with skeletons. Which was weird, seeing as it was several months until Halloween.  
  
Gaz held Spooky up to the window. "See them?" she asked. "Do you know any of them?" She gave Spooky a squeak. "No? Ah well. You probably don't know every skeleton you meet." As she watched the dancing skeletons, the screen blacked out. "Huh?" Gaz said, before the screen was filled with her face. She paled.  
  
Along the top of the screen it said Amber Alert. Below, it said, "Gaz Membrane, Age: 11, Eyecolor: Unknown, eyes often squinted." Gaz opened her eyes, to contradict what the screen said. "Hair color: Purple, Likes: Video games." Gaz tossed her GS2 into a nearby trash can. "Attitude: Gothic, dark, unsociable. If you find this girl, call 1-555-CAL-HERE."  
  
Purple hair? Unsociable? Gaz would have to change that.  
  
She bought black hair dye, and dyed her hair in a water fountain. Then she continue her search for somewhere to stay, smiling sociably at anyone who looked at her. It made her sick. When she wasn't smiling sickeningly, she talked to Spooky.  
  
She was in a park now. "So, do you think we'll find anyone today?" *Squeak* "C'mon, be more optimistic!" *Squeak* "That's better. Uh oh, cops. They probably suspect us." *Squeak* "I think we can fake it too. Wish us luck." *Squeak*  
  
"Hey, you!" the fatter of the two cops said. "Are you that Gaz kid?"  
  
"Me?" Gaz asked nervously. "No way! My name's . . . uh, Tenna! Yeah!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" the second asked. "Then where's Gaz?"  
  
"Uh . . ." Gaz looked around, and spotted a girl with purple pigtails near a fountain. She looked kinda Gothic. "There! That might be her!" The cops turned around. "Hey you! Are you that Gaz kid everyone's looking for?"  
  
They ran over, and Gaz followed.  
  
"No, I'm Devi," the girl said, looking up from a drawing that was very . . . obscene. "Who's Gaz?"  
  
The cops looked at each other. "Nevermind." The fat one said, before the second one grabbed his arm and pointed the other way at some girl with a GameSlave. The two grinned at each other and started running towards here. "Hey, you! Are you that Gaz kid?"  
  
Gaz sat down by the fountain. "That was close," she whispered.  
  
"You say something?" Devi asked.  
  
"Oh, no! No! That was Spooky," Gaz said quickly, squeaking her doll. "My name's Tenna."  
  
"Hmmmm," Devi mumbled, not looking up from her picture.  
  
"Hey!" Gaz said, getting an idea. "Can I, um, stay with you? My parents are kinda on a vacation."  
  
"Sure," Devi said, looking up. "How long do you need to stay?"  
  
"Like, oh," Gaz thought. "Forever?"  
  
Devi sighed. "Those darned parents that abandon their kids. I'll go talk to my parents about it, okay Tenna?"  
  
Gaz grinned broadly. "Okay, thanks!" She squeaked her doll. "Spooky says thanks, too."  
  
~*~  
  
So, that was chapter 4, Tenna's origins. That's an important part of the story. Yeah, I'm setting up I Feel Sick, along with JtHM. And this does tie in to Dib/Nny's story. Gaz's actions don't exactly sit well on Dib. Expect Nailbunny in the next chapter.  
  
And, the confession I promised: I have never actually read JtHM in my life. I'm only 13 years old, my mom would kill me! I've been on hundreds of sites and I've read bios and summaries galore. So I think I know JtHM and I Feel Sick pretty well, but I'm just not sure! So don't shoot me if I don't get their personalities right. I try haaaard . . . And I know a whole dang lot about the characters, so I think I'll do okay. And I'm assuming that the monster that killed Nny is a moose monster, because that's what I've heard. If it isn't, lemme know, okay? Thanks!  
  
And now, buh-bye! And I'll tell you when this is over. In the words of CryingChild, "Skiya!"  
  
Disclaimer 2: Johnen owns Invader Zim Johnny the Homocidal Maniac, and I Feel Sick, I own the Knife, and CryingChild own Skiya! 


	6. Ch5 Never Made It as a Wise Man

Hi all! It is I, Funeral for the Living!!!  
  
I said I would add the prologue thingie, but I decided I want to do that as a separate fic, 'kay? Look for a fic titled "Prelude to the Prelude". It won't be out for awhile.  
  
I got some emails that said Tenna's black, and Gaz is not. Yes, I know Gaz is not black. I did not know Tenna is. I just thought she had a really dark tan. So! The only logical options are;  
  
a) Rewrite the last chapter (yikes!)  
  
b) Make Tenna white (As if. We can't change the future)  
  
c) Make Gaz black (However, we CAN change the present.)  
  
Gaz's running away is one of the most important parts of the story. It triggers the appearance of Nailbunny, Johnny's obsession with Brainfreezies, and it tells us how Devi and Tenna became friends. C'mon, don't YOU want to know how they met each other??? Yes, you do. Admit it.  
  
So, Gaz has to become black. No problemo. 'Cause, we don't REALLY know Tenna's black. Who's to say she didn't get the darkest tan in the history of mankind when she was eleven years old?  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own Invader Zim, don't own I Feel Sick, don't own Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, but I DO own the events that happened between the show and the comics. I don't own Gaz or Tenna, but I own Gaz/Tenna, I don't own Dib or Johnny, but I own Dib/Johnny, and I own both the living Nailbunny and the dead-but-not-possessed Nailbunny. Okay? Okay. And How You Remind Me is owned by Nickelback.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Never Made It as a Wise Man  
  
~*~  
  
Dib fingered his knife. 'It's all Zim's fault,' he thought. 'It's Zim's fault Gaz left.'  
  
Zim had died, which had given Dib the Knife and made him want to help the world. It was as Zim's funeral that Dib had told everyone he was going to save the world. Dib had killed everyone with the Knife to stop them from laughing at him for what he had done at the funeral and he killed to help the world. The killing had made Gaz leave.  
  
Dib threw the Knife against his door and fell down onto his bed, disgusted at his life.  
  
He was messed up. He killed people, and that was his whole life. 'Stupid, stupid, Zim.'  
  
Dib sat up long enough to throw the pillow off his bed at the Knife. It hit two feet below his target.  
  
There must be some way he could help Gaz.  
  
He hadn't mention Spooky to the authorities. Or how pale Gaz was. Then he could go look for her again. It was something.  
  
Dib got up and took the Knife out of the door. He would give the authorities more information, then go look for Gaz.  
  
He ran down the hall, thinking, 'Anything is useful now.'  
  
. . . . . . . . . .  
  
Professor Membrane stopped at a pet store on the way home. He knew Dib was upset since his sister-- Gad? Gab?-- had run away, so he wanted to get him something special to replace her (hah!) until the police found her.  
  
He walked inside, and walked to the cashier, who was a little girl around his daughter's age.  
  
"Excuse me, miss," Membrane said, "I'm looking for a pet for my son."  
  
The girl looked up from her drawing, and Membrane could see her nametag said, "Hi! I'm DEVI" "What'd you like?" she asked.  
  
Membrane thought. Well, Gaz was a girl, so something CUTE and FLUFFY would probably fill her place best (double hah!) . "I'd like the CUTEst and FLUFFYest bunny you have," he said.  
  
Devi nodded and stood up. Pushing open a door behind her that said "Employees Only", she yelled, "Tenna! We need one of those white bunnies we got last week!"  
  
"No problem!" a voice called back, and a black-haired girl walked into the room holding a white bunny and a skeleton doll. She froze in mid-step when she saw Professor Membrane.  
  
'Probably awed to be in the presence of the greatest scientist in the history of mankind,' he thought.  
  
"You know," he said out loud, "That doll of yours looks just like one my daughter used to have. She's the one everyone's looking for."  
  
"Really?" Devi asked. "Has there been any news of her whereabouts?" Did Membrane just see Tenna freeze up?  
  
"Only her skin color. She's very pale," said Membrane. "And the authorities have been notified that she has a skeleton doll like Tenna here does."  
  
Devi nodded. "You want the bunny?"  
  
"Oh, right," Membrane said, pulling out a twenty. "How much is it?"  
  
"Thirty-five dollars," Devi said. Membrane frowned and started digging around in his pocket for another twenty.  
  
"I think we should let Mr. Membrane have the bunny for twenty," Tenna said quietly. Devi looked at her strangely, but shrugged and accepted the 20.  
  
"Here you go!" Devi said, handing over the caged bunny. "And I hope you find your daughter soon!"  
  
'I hope he doesn't,' Tenna thought, watching with relief as her father left. That was too close. Thank God her father wouldn't recognize her if she had her name stamped on her forehead!  
  
She was just starting to relax, when the bell over the door jingled and her worst nightmare walked in. Tenna suppressed a yell, and ducked under the counter as Johnny walked around the shop, her heart punding in fear. She peeked around the side just to see where he was.  
  
He looked just the way she had remembered, his hair falling innocently all around his face, except for that one scythe up in the middle. That was what Dib was now. Dib, the pure, Dib, the foolishly innocent, but overhanging it all was the Johnny. Johnny the killer. Johnny the bloodthirsty. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac!  
  
Tenna shuddered. That was what he was.  
  
"Tenna," Devi asked, "Why are you spying on that boy?"  
  
"Uh..." She thought up a quick reply. "I think he's totally hot! I don't want him to see me because... I'm ugly. You see, I'm just so pale." Johnny was looking at a goldfish bowl. This was Tenna's chance to get out of there. "I've, um, got to go to a tanning salon now, yeah, to get un-pale! BYE!"  
  
Tenna leapt up and dashed out the door.  
  
Devi watched her retreating form. 'He's not THAT good-looking,' Devi thought. She looked the boy over again. 'On second thought, maybe he is.'  
  
"Hey!" Devi called to him. "Cool hair-scythe!"  
  
He smiled at her. "Cute pigtails."  
  
. . . . .  
  
Dib walked home, upset. He hadn't found Gaz, and he had had to kill three people. Well, it wasn't HIS fault they thought it necessary to point out his trench coat was out-of-date. Why did they think he cared about silly little fads anyway? Heck, Dib didn't even know there WERE different styles of trench coats! He didn't think those people had any right to tell him exactly what they though of his outfit anyway. It was his own opinion that mattered.  
  
But, at least he had met Devi, who seemed pretty nice.  
  
'I sure hope our friendship doesn't end with one of us killing the other or something,' Dib thought, tossing another ruined trench coat in the trash can outside his house.  
  
~Never made it as a wise man  
  
~I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing  
  
Dib walked in his house, to find his dad was already there.  
  
"Suprise, son!" he said. "I got this for you since you miss your sister so much." He held out a caged bunny.  
  
"Thanks Dad," Dib said.  
  
"You can name it anything you want, son," Membrane said.  
  
Dib looked at the bunny. "I'll think about that," he said.  
  
~Tired of living like a blind man  
  
~I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling  
  
~And this is how, you remind me . . .  
  
Dib walked over to Gir's house. He had been spending a lot of time there. He hated staying at home. If Gaz hadn't run away, he would probably like his house. But he hated it. So he spent time with Gir.  
  
"Is Master comin' home yet?" the robot asked when he answered the door. He had asked this every time Dib had come over. Dib always answered it the same way.  
  
"Not yet, Gir."  
  
Gir sighed. "I miss him."  
  
To get Gir's mind off Zim, Dib said, "Do you wanna go get a couple of Brainfreezies?"  
  
"YAY! Thank you, Diiiiiiiiib."  
  
Dib half-smiled. "Don't call me that. My name's Johnny."  
  
"That name's funny," Gir said. "It's got a Joe, and a knee. Joe-knee."  
  
Dib smiled. "Hey," he said, "Nny isn't a half bad name. Gir, from now on, call me Nny!"  
  
"Whoot!" Gir said, latching on to Dib's leg. "I'm hugging Nny's knee! Go forth, and be a happy cabbage!"  
  
"That's kinda cool, 'Go forth and be a happy cabbage,'" Dib murmured. "That'd be a good thing for, maybe, a comic book character to say." (Bet YOU didn't know that line came from Gir!!)  
  
. . .  
  
They sat drinking their Brainfreezies, watching the sun set. It's a very cool thing to watch the sun go down while having a Cherry Doom. Take my word for it.  
  
Dib sucked extra hard as the sky turned from orange to red. 'Kinda like blood,' Dib thought, and wished he hadn't. He could have painted the sky with all the blood he had spilled. He was a killer.  
  
Gaz was right about him. He wasn't safe enough for her to be around.  
  
'Touché, sister,' Dib thought. 'Even when you're not here, you find a way to show me how truly crazy I am."  
  
~This is how, you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am  
  
~This is how, you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am.  
  
Dib sucked again. The Freezy tasted metallic.  
  
~It's not like you, to say sorry  
  
~I was waitin' here on a different story  
  
~This time I'm, mistaken  
  
~For handing you a heart worth breaking  
  
~And I've been wrong, I've been down  
  
~To the bottom of every bottle  
  
~These five words in my head scream  
  
~"Are we having fun yet?"  
  
Dib sat in his room, bored. He was thinking about his afternoon with Gir.  
  
It was well past midnight. Dib drifted off to sleep.  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
The bell rang. Tenna packed her backpack and waited outside the Schul to leave with Devi.  
  
Tenna looked at the sign that said "Elumenturee Schul."  
  
'Why can't they ever get it right?' she wondered.  
  
~It's not like you didn't know that  
  
~I said I love you and I swear I still do.  
  
Tenna remembered waiting outside for Dib at Skool. She sort of missed him, time to time, but feared him more than she missed him. But there was no way he could get her now. She lived halfway across the town, went to a new school, was as tanned as an African (Gaz CAN be Tenna!), and cheerful enough to make her old self seem like the killer. To be honest, Gaz missed her GameSlave more than she did Johnny.  
  
~And it must have been so bad  
  
~'Cos living with me must've dang near killed you  
  
Dib dreamed about Zim. He dreamed Zim was a ghost and was trying to kill him. And his sister was dead.  
  
Dib woke up in a cold sweat. 'Am I really awake?' he asked himself.  
  
He got the answer when his bunny jumped out at him and ate him whole, and THEN he woke up.  
  
Dib sat up and looked around his room. Okay, everything was all right. Or was he really awake? Maybe he was still dreaming.  
  
"Maybe I'll never wake up again!" Dib whispered, chills running down his spine. "Or maybe dreams are real!"  
  
Dib vowed that night never to sleep again.  
  
~And this is how you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am  
  
~This is how you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am  
  
The sun was just coming up. Dib hadn't gone back to sleep. He had drawn pictures of Gaz. He held them up for inspection. "They look like noodle girls," he said. He half-smiled, then got an idea.  
  
Pulling out a fresh piece of paper, he drew on a frowning stick figure with huge black eyes saying "Go forth and be a happy cabbage!" Dib wrote Noodle Boy at the top.  
  
Inspecting his art, Dib smiled. "I knew that line would be good in a comic book."  
  
~It's not like you, to say sorry  
  
~I was waiting on a different story  
  
~This time I'm, mistaken  
  
~For handing you a heart worth breaking  
  
Dib erased the frown and put a mad grin there instead, and wrote Happy in front of his name.  
  
He ran out to the garage and grabbed a nail from some near by tools, and ran back upstairs to his room. He didn't glance once at the sandbelter. There was no Bigfoot. There was only pain, how to avoid it, and how to stop it for others.  
  
~I've been wrong, I've been down  
  
~To the bottom of every bottle  
  
~These five words in my head scream  
  
~"Are we having fun yet?"  
  
Dib tapped the nail on either side of his picture.  
  
"I dub thee, Happy Noodle Boy!" he said.  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
~Yet yet yet, no no  
  
Dib open his bunny's cage. The bunny still hadn't been named.  
  
"See?" he said, holding the picture in the cage. "This is Happy Noodle Boy. What do you think?"  
  
The bunny bit Dib's finger.  
  
~Never made it as a wise man  
  
~I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing  
  
~And this is how you remind me . . .  
  
"OW!" Dib yelled, pulling his bleeding hand out of the cage. The bunny started nibbling on the page. "Why you little!" He grabbed the nail from the desk and stabbed it through the bunny's heart.  
  
"Nailbunny," Johnny snarled, twisting the nail. "I dub thee Nailbunny."  
  
~This is how you remind me . . .  
  
Johnny's anger slowly faded, and he realized what he had done. "NAILBUNNY!" But the bunny had died before it had received its official name.  
  
~This is how you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am  
  
~This is how you remind me  
  
~Of what I really am  
  
Nny carefully stored Nailbunny in a box. How could he have killed it?  
  
"I don't have a soul," Nny said. "I'm just a homicidal maniac."  
  
~It's not like you, to say sorry  
  
~I was waiting on a different story  
  
~This time I'm, mistaken  
  
~For handing you a heart worth breaking  
  
~And I've been wrong, I've been down  
  
~To the bottom of every bottle  
  
~These five words in my head scream  
  
~"Are we having fun yet?"  
  
Gir sat in his master's base, waiting for him again. He did every night. He ignored all noises in the house, so he could wait for Master.  
  
Meanwhile, the "noises" in the underground labs, was mutating.  
  
There was a moose down there, and experiment that Zim had never quite finished. And it was becoming more warped by the hour in its little room . . .  
  
~Yet, yet  
  
~Are we having fun yet?  
  
Johnny sat up. He wouldn't fall asleep. But his room was so BORING, and it was the middle of the night.  
  
He saw a picture on the wall of an alien, and he had to stare at it a few minutes before he realized it was Zim.  
  
~Yet, yet  
  
~Are we having fun yet?  
  
Nny looked at the picture. Zim, part of a past life now. He took out his knife and looked at the carving on the handle. A planet with the Irken logo zooming out. But Nny wasn't an Irken.  
  
He ran downstairs and got a kitchen knife.  
  
~Yet, yet  
  
~Are we having fun yet?  
  
He scratched out the logo, and carved his name beside where it had been. "NNY".  
  
~Yet, yet  
  
~No, no, no . . .  
  
~*~  
  
So, whadja think? I KNEW I could make Gaz black! Whoo-hoo! I win!  
  
Expect an important death in the next chapters, as well as the appearance of house 777, the vacating of Squee's future home, and the birth of Psycho- Doughboy, Mr. Eff, and Nailbunny. And, of course, Nny's infamous ever- changing shirt. What, you didn't know there was a REASON it changed??? Well, there iiiiiiiis!  
  
~Funeral 


	7. Ch6 That's Who

Hello, I am back. I'm on a roll! This fic is about 2/3 through! Yessssss!!!  
  
So, it's about time to be asking if you want a sequel or not. You probably do, so here's the basic plot:  
  
Johnny has all but forgotten his former life. And then, -ZIM-, of all people (um, people??) comes back to haunt him. Tenna and Nny are reunited, Zim and Gir are reunited, all the left shoes in town disappeared because Zim wanted to try out his new poltergeisting (is that a word?) powers. And, beyond the shoes, I need PLOT IDEAS!!! I want to get the rest of the Irkens involved somehow. Now I need your help, everyone. I need a plot that has Irkens, Johnny, Tenna, Zim, and Gir, and a lot of chances for Nny to use the Knife. Which, coincidentally, is Zim's knife. And, remember, if you suggest something, try not to have it focus around Tallest Purple 'cause he's dead. Yep. You'll find out why if I ever get around to typing Prelude to the Prelude.  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. None of them. I own the plot and the Knife. Neither of which is a bad thing to own.  
  
This has got to be the shortest A/N I've ever written!  
  
Oh, and whoever comes up with the plot I'll use gets a co-star roll in the sequel. Yep.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
"That's Who."  
  
~*~  
  
Johnny sat at his desk in his room, polishing the Knife. Fifteen people that day. Nny had already changed clothes, so that when Professor Membrane got home, he wouldn't see the blood that had been on them.  
  
Johnny put the piece of cloth he was using to clean the Knife down. Was that a car in front of the house? Nny stood up and climbed out his bedroom window and onto the roof. Yes, it was. So Membrane was home.  
  
Nny put his Knife in his boots to head downstairs. They were brand-new boots, with metal tips on the toes and huge buckles. Dib's last pair of boots had been cut open when he stored the Knife in it. This new pair was supposedly more durable. Thank God. His old pair had become really ratty.  
  
He ran downstairs to meet his dad, hoping he'd have more information on Gaz. "Hey Dad, did you get--"  
  
"Son!" Professor Membrane proclaimed. "Tonight, we're going to have a Family Night Out. Where's your sister?"  
  
"She's missing," Nny said dully, getting slightly p.o.ed. Jeez, couldn't he remember that???  
  
"Oh, of course," Membrane recovered. "I remember now! So, where would you like to go to dinner, son?"  
  
Nny shrugged. "Let's go to Bloaty's again. Last time I only got about a bite of pizza."  
  
"Alright," Membrane said. "Get in the car, son."  
  
. . . . .  
  
Everyone was silent as they drove to Bloaty's. Nny looked out the window, trying to remember why he had only gotten a bite of pizza. He had been . . . handcuffed? No, he'd been strapped to a chair! No, it was a long, board thingie. Right. Why had he been strapped to a board thingie?  
  
They passed Zim's house. Of course! He had been captured by Zim after breaking into his base and was about to be turned inside out when Gaz came and saved him. Then she had taken him into an escape pod and flown to Earth with him attached to the board. Right.  
  
Nny thought about it a minute, and realized that this was the third Family Night Out in only a couple of months. 'What's with that?' he wondered. Eh, Membrane was probably just running out of scientific ideas and needed something to fill the time.  
  
. . .  
  
Johnny and his dad sat at Bloaty's, eating their pizza in silence.  
  
"So," Dib said casually, "have you heard anything on Gaz?"  
  
Professor Membrane swallowed a bite of pizza. "Gaz who?" he asked.  
  
Johnny looked at him, annoyed. "Gaz, my sister? Your daughter."  
  
"Oh," Membrane said. "Of course. No, I haven't."  
  
"Or maybe you have and just forgot."  
  
"Uh, maybe."  
  
Nny sighed, thoroughly p.o.ed. He changed the subject. "Do you know anything about me?"  
  
"Well . . ."  
  
"Did you know that I've seen a person commit suicide?"  
  
Professor Membrane looked properly shocked. "N-no, how could I have known?"  
  
"By asking me?" Nny said dryly. "And, you did hear about his death. Gaz stayed home from skool that day so they could have the funeral in her classroom. Taxes were raised because of that funeral, and you made me pay the taxes for the funeral of the person I saw with my own two eyes kill himself."  
  
Membrane couldn't look at Johnny. He looked at his pizza.  
  
"Do you know what you were doing that morning?" Nny said. "You were discovering the cure for the common cold. I heard that whatever you made caused the cold, instead of stopping it."  
  
Membrane looked away. "I'll be spending the next couple of years finding the real cure," he said quietly. "That's why I'm having the Family Nights Out for the next few years this year."  
  
Nny looked over his dad's face. "Have you ever really discovered a cure in your life?" he asked. "Or have you been wasting all your time on Super Toast and stuff?"  
  
"Hey, Super Toast is important," Membrane said, finally looking at his son. "No home should be without it!"  
  
"Dad," Nny said, "I've tried your 'Super' Toast before, and there isn't a single thing special about it. Not one."  
  
Membrane looked away again.  
  
"What do you do?" Nny asked. "You make a load of junk that 'makes life easier.' I go straight to the source of what makes life hard. I stop people from starting pain before they do."  
  
"Well, that's a very honorable vocation, son," Membrane said, for lack of anything else.  
  
"Did you know that I've seen murder before?"  
  
Membrane looked at his son, once again shocked. "Who have you seen killed?"  
  
"Well, first of all, in that cafeteria, all those dead people? I saw 'em die. It wasn't a yeti. It was a person with a knife."  
  
Membrane nodded slightly.  
  
"I've seen countless street murders, too. Hundreds of people have died before my eyes. They were all stabbed to death. Do you know how I've seen all these deaths?"  
  
"How?" Membrane whispered.  
  
"I caused them," Nny said, and was rewarded when his father gave a quick gasp. Nny drew out the Knife. "I have to kill you now," Johnny said plainly. "I told you this because I knew I could trust my own father with my secret, but then I realized something-- I can't trust you with my secret."  
  
Johnny put the Knife on the table, where his father could see it. "This was what the person who committed suicide used. I stood and watched him stab himself. I held him as his last breathe left his body. I heard him whisper, as he was bleeding, 'Oh God. I don't want to die!'"  
  
Johnny picked up his Knife and stood on the table. "You think that's easy to forget?!" he screamed. "Where were you while I had to go through that? Well? You were in your lab, ignoring both my sister and me! When she left, I thought you'd spend a little time looking for her, a 'great man' like you should be able to find her easy! Well, I knew you hadn't even thought about her when you said 'Gaz who?'"  
  
Johnny kicked the pizza off the table. "Well, do you know who Gaz is?" Nny screamed. All of Bloaty's was looking at him. "Gaz is the best gamer in the world! She's a lonely person who needs a dad to take care of her! She saw me KILL someone and fainted, and when she woke up, she asked me what had happened then immediately told me about Family Night Out so we wouldn't miss it. She needed you, Dad. How the h311 couldn't you see that??"  
  
Membrane shook, with a terrified expression on what you could see of his face.  
  
"You never pay attention to us," Nny growled. "I said I stop starters of pain. Well, here's one in front of me." Johnny stabbed his dad.  
  
"Gaz wasn't just a gamer!" Stab. "Gaz was a person!" Stab. "Gaz was my SISTER!" Stabstabstabstab.  
  
The rest of Bloaty's screamed. A man ran for the phone. Johnny threw his Knife so that the man was decapitated before he could reach the phone. To Nny's surprise, his Knife came back like a boomerang after cutting the man's head off.  
  
Nny quickly left the building. No one noticed him. They were all looking for the Knife he had put in his trench coat pocket.  
  
. . . . .  
  
Johnny made it home unnoticed. He felt in his pocket for the Knife, and instead hit a hard plastic object. He drew it out of his pocket, and saw it was a water gun, still full. Nny gave it a test squeeze. It shot a perfect line.  
  
"What did I have that in my pocket for?" he wondered. An image of a green boy briefly surfaced. 'Why does he have green skin?' Nny thought. He knew there was a reason. 'Eh, probably just a skin condition.'  
  
. . . .  
  
Nny watched the news that night. "Today, at Bloaty's, Professor Alex Membrane was stabbed to death by a young boy we suspect to me his son."  
  
"Dad's first name is Alex?" Nny said.  
  
"The boy jumped on the table and pulled out a knife, and started yelling about some person named . . . Gaz. Here we have an exclusive video from a person at Bloaty's."  
  
A video was show of a birthday party. A boy was blowing out the candles when someone started yelling in the background. The camera swung around to see Johnny, ranting to his dad.  
  
"If you see this boy, please call 911 immediately. He is wanted for the murder of Professor Membrane, maker of Super Toast and future curer of the common cold."  
  
Nny turned off the TV. People were looking for him. The most obvious place for them to start would be Membrane's house. Dib had to leave.  
  
He ran up to his room to pack.  
  
~*~  
  
Like? Hate? Please review! And remember, I need PLOT IDEAS!! Pleeeeeaaaaasse??? And, I'd like it if someone posted a picture advertising this fic on a site (like Deviant Art or something). So! There are two contests;  
  
plot idea for sequel  
  
picture for fic  
  
The picture can be of Dib/Johnny, or anyone. What I'd really like is either a picture of Dib holding Zim as he dies, or of Dib/Johnny. Dib/Johnny has the scythe in his hair but the rest of the hair is like Nny's, an insane grin like Nny's, Nny's boots, and Dib's clothes, except under the smiley on Dib's shirt it says "Smile, YOU FREAK!" Okay? Can someone do that for me pleeeaaase? Post it on a site, then send me the link to the picture at "funeral4theliving@yahoo.com", okay? Thnx!  
  
The winner of the plot contest gets to co-star in the sequel, and so does the winner of the art contest!  
  
Oh, and someone asked me if the last chapter was a songfic. O.o Well DUH! The song is How You Remind Me by Nickelback. If you haven't heard the song, then I hope that on the first day that you live in Heaven, you receive a prank call from Hell that burns you to a crisp. Yup.  
  
~Funeral 


	8. Ch7 House 777

Hello! Here, we have, the long-anticipated chapter whatever!!! Yesh, I forgotses what chappy I'm on. Hee. On to the fic!!  
  
Just so everyone knows, Nny and Tenna are forgetting about their past lives as Gaz and Dib because, let's face it, Nny isn't exactly obsessed with Bigfoot, and Tenna is NOT NOT NOT evil. Well, she IS evil, but not "I'm gonna torture you" evil. She's "WHEEEEEEEE!!!" evil. So, expect Nny to forget about Zim, his old name, and everything else. When he's around Gir, he remembers Zim, but only because Gir is such a direct tie to Zim.  
  
Raven: I'm glad you like my fic! And, Zim WILL end up as a head voice . . . in fact, all three . . . You'll have to read chapter 8 to get what I mean. This is chapter 7.  
  
johnnymaniac777: . . . Nailbunny was dead for three years when the comic started? How do I work around that? Dib seems like he's about 12 to me, and Nny doesn't really seen like he's fifteen . . . Well, you know how Nny's so disorganized and everything? Nailbunny probably said he was dead three years, and forgot how long he really HAD been dead . . . well, heck if I know! I'm just makin' this up! X) And, hypothetically, the monster COULD have been a moose at one time, right? And, if fans call it a moose, why not make it a moose? Thanks for the review, though! If you remember the other things you wanted to tell me, tell me! ( You're really lucky to have the JtHM director's cut. I tried to get Mom and Dad to let me have one, but Dad says I can't get it because it had Homicidal in the title. -.-;;; Oh well! Lucky you!  
  
Disclaimer: Is my first name Jhonen? No. Is my LAST name Jhonen??? NO! It there a Jhonen or a Vasquez anywhere in my name?!? NO!!!  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
House 777  
  
~*~  
  
Gir watched the men in his Master's front yard nervously. He had heard them talking earlier. They had said something about "No owner," "Empty house," and "Needs work before it can be sold." Gir was afraid. They just weren't leaving!  
  
"I've gotta hide the labs," he whispered to himself. He left the living room window and ran into the kitchen, hoping the mysterious humans wouldn't do anything while he was gone.  
  
"Computer!" Gir yelled. "I need some help!"  
  
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeess?" the computer groaned. It sighed. "And I had been having such a nice break while Master was gone!!"  
  
Gir frowned, worried about what the men were doing in the front lawn. "I need you to listen to all my requests, okay?"  
  
"Whatever." The computer yawned.  
  
"Okay, destroy the toilet in the kitchen and close the passage to the underground lab below it." The computer complied. "Close the passage under the trash can. Close the passage under the coffee table in the living room. Self-destruct the Robo-Parents and destroy their passageway to the lab."  
  
Gir carefully destroyed ever hidden passageway to the underground labs. 'Master will be proud of me when he gets back,' Gir thought. 'I hope he gets back soon.'  
  
Yes, all the hidden passages were gone. However, the two non-hidden passages were easily accessible. It was the stairs down to the torture chamber. And, in the normal basement, was a wall that connected to the moose experiment's room. Later to be known as the Wall.  
  
. . . . . . . . . .  
  
Tenna watched the TV in silence. She had heard something about news on her Dad. Maybe he had finally cured the common cold. Lord knew he had tried enough times. Devi walked it.  
  
"Hey, Tenn, what are you--"  
  
"Shush!" Gaz said, her eyes squinting. "I'm TRYING to WATCH this SHOW! If you don't leave me alone, your world will be a nightmare world from which you can never es--"  
  
Tenna caught herself. Oh, jeez, she was acting like her old self. She couldn't let that happen. Smiling brightly, Tenna said, "I wanna watch this show! Sorry for snapping at you. I saw a movie with people like that last night." Tenna wanted to make herself puke sometimes.  
  
Eyeing Tenna suspiciously, Devi accepted the answer and sat beside her friend.  
  
"Today, at Bloaty's, Professor Alex Membrane was stabbed to death by a young boy we suspect to me his son. The boy jumped on the table and pulled out a knife, and started yelling about some person named . . . Gaz."  
  
Tenna gasped. Johnny had killed their own father?  
  
" Here we have an exclusive video from a person at Bloaty's."  
  
A video was show of a birthday party. A boy was blowing out the candles when someone started yelling in the background. The camera swung around to see a boy ranting to Tenna's Dad. The boy was Nny.  
  
Tenna gasped in shock as Johnny stabbed their father.  
  
"If you see this boy, please call 911 immediately. He is wanted for the murder of Professor Membrane, maker of Super Toast and future curer of the common cold."  
  
Tenna shook and almost began to cry. How could they-- how could Nny-- Dad was now-- Tenna couldn't form a clear thought. She didn't want to, anyway.  
  
"Tenna, are you okay? Devi asked. Tenna turned to her friend, and saw Devi looking at her with concern and worry. But she didn't seem upset at all over Professor Membrane's death.  
  
Tenna felt herself growing angry. How could she not care? Then Tenna snapped.  
  
Devi didn't care. Why should she? And if Gaz was now Tenna, she didn't care either.  
  
She just didn't care.  
  
"I'm fine!" Tenna said brightly. "I'm just a little disappointed that I'll never get rid of this annoying cold I have."  
  
Devi cocked an eyebrow. "It'll go away in a week."  
  
Tenna blinked, and let that process through her brain a little. "Oh yeeeaaah. You're right! Spooky congratulates you!" Tenna held up her doll and gave him a good squeeze.  
  
Devi sighed. "I'm going to draw a picture of a falling tree or something. What are you gonna do?"  
  
'Go to an arcade,' part of her brain commanded. 'Why would I want to play video games?' the other side of her brain said. 'Movies!'  
  
"I'm gonna see a movie!" Tenna said. "You wanna come along, Dev?" Devi shook her head and walked down the hall to her bedroom. "You need to get out more!" Tenna called to her, smiling widely.  
  
Tenna grabbed a remote to turn off the TV, when a news flash came on about Gaz. Tenna watched the show a bit, before turning off the TV. "I really feel sorry for that Gaz kid," Tenna mumbled to herself. "I hope they find her soon."  
  
Tenna had no memory of who she'd been.  
  
. . . . . .  
  
Johnny walked across the street. He was going to see Gir. Gir was pretty much the only thing left to live for.  
  
As Nny crossed the street, he noticed all the people in front of Zim's house. 'What are THEY doing here?' Nny thought. If they were hurting Gir, they would have him to answer to.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Johnny asked the first man he approached.  
  
"Why, we're selling the house! No one lives here! Um, do you live here?" Dib shook his head. "Well, then selling off this piece of junk would be legal! C'mon, men let's go call someone to renovate this place so that it isn't so . . . green."  
  
All the men piled into their various cars and left. Johnny stood on the front yard awhile, before going inside to see Gir.  
  
"And hide the one behind the monkey picture and the one under the TV . . ."  
  
"Gir?" Nny yelled. Gir immediately stopped giving orders and turned to look at Nny.  
  
"JOHNNY! YOU CAME BACK FOR ME!!" Gir yelled. "I HAVE A HUNDRED CORN NIBBLETS IN MY JOCKEY STRAPS OF DOOM!! What's your favorite super power?"  
  
"Head explody," Johnny said without hesitation. "Gir, they're going to sell this house. You need to leave."  
  
"Huh?" Gir said. "But, then Master won't be able to find me!"  
  
Nny stared at Gir. He still believed. Nny sighed. Gir would have had to find out sooner or later. "Gir, Zim's dead."  
  
Gir shook his head. "No he's not. He's on a mission for the Tallest or something. He isn't dead." Gir smiled. "He's comin' home soon."  
  
Nny looked at Gir with pity in his eyes. "No, I'm sorry, he's just not coming back."  
  
Gir looked closely at Johnny. "No, he's not dead."  
  
"Yes he is!"  
  
"He's not!"  
  
"He IS! You're just trying to deny it! Accept the truth, Gir!"  
  
"He's alive! I know it! He'll come back someday!"  
  
"No he WON'T!" Nny pulled out his Knife, and held it over Gir's head.  
  
"DON'T!"  
  
Nny looked down at the robot. He was sobbing. "Please, Dib, don't."  
  
Johnny lowered his Knife. Dib . . . that had been his old name, hadn't it? Dib. Dib wouldn't have tried to kill his friends.  
  
"I'm sorry," Nny said quietly.  
  
Gir nodded and sniffed, before smiling again. "If I'm leavin', I should get you some gifts! Wait here!"  
  
Gir ran out of the living room, and came back holding two things, a shirt and a lazer.  
  
"Take off your glasses and bend down," Gir said. Nny did, and Gir quickly zapped both eyes with his lazer. Nny reeled back, rubbing both eyes.  
  
"Hey, what was that for?" Johnny demanded, looking down at Gir, when he realized that everything was in focus and he wasn't even wearing his glasses.  
  
"I dood lassock! I sawed it on TV!" Gir said brightly. "And here's a shirt!" Gir held it up. It was plain black.  
  
"Thanks," Nny said, taking off his old one and putting the new one on. It immediately grew a face like the one on his other shirt with the words "Smile, YOU FREAK!!" underneath. "Woah!"  
  
"It's magic!" Gir said. "Wait, no it's not, it's just cool. It reads your mind and changes!"  
  
"Neat," Johnny said. He thought about the night he had decided not to sleep again. The word "Z?" appeared.  
  
"Mmyep. It's neat," Gir said. He sighed. "I've gotta leave now."  
  
Nny looked up at Gir, tearing his eyes away from his shirt. "Right now?" Gir nodded.  
  
Johnny stood up. "Well, I guess I should see you out."  
  
Gir and Nny walked to the door. Gir opened the door and walked outside. It was then that Johnny realized he wasn't sad. Gir, his only friend, was leaving, and Nny didn't care.  
  
*Nothing scares me anymore. There is nothing you can do to me that can, in any way, scare me. You can gross me out, or make me mad, but you can't scare me. *  
  
'Nothing can make me sad anymore, I guess,' Nny thought. 'This whole dang society is slowly robbing me of every emotion that makes me human.'  
  
"Well, I guess I'll see you around, Gir," Nny said. "Where are you going now?"  
  
Gir smiled. "I'm a-gonna live in a 24/7! See ya!" Gir activated his rockets and flew off.  
  
Nny watched him go. Would he still believe Zim was alive? Maybe he'd start seeing things? Go off the deep end and start killing people? Nny chuckled. Well, then Gir could be his assistant. Johnny left the house, once again in search of somewhere to live.  
  
. . . . . . . . . . .  
  
"Boss, we've fixed that ol' green house so it ain't green no more. But, we found somethin' interestin' behind the couch in the living room."  
  
"Well, what it is?"  
  
"Looks like that Zim guy's will. It's on notebook paper, though. It says will at the top."  
  
"Hmmmm. Let me see it."  
  
The piece of paper was handed from the worker to his boss.  
  
"Hmm. 'Everything goes to the last person to see me alive.' That Dib kid saw him, right? I read about it in the paper."  
  
"Yeah. So, how we gonna track him down?"  
  
"Put an ad in the paper. Then, we can kill him so we get the house."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Um, I mean, get him set up in his new home."  
  
. . . . . . . . . . .  
  
Nny sat on a bench, reading the classified ads. Maybe there would be someone looking for some work. Mowing grass, babysitting, that stuff. Maybe there would be someone looking for a professional assassin. That'd be cool.  
  
Johnny's eyes fell on an ad that said, "Looking for Dib Carler". He stared a couple of minutes, thinking it was interesting that Dib kid had the same last name as him, and maybe they were related, before he sheepishly remembered that he WAS Dib. He read the ad.  
  
"Former home of Zim Invader left to Dib J. Carler. If you read this, please come to Poop Estate Homes to get your new house. And, don't worry, there's no trap. So, Dib Carler, please come and claim your new home."  
  
Nny read over the address of Poop Estate Homes, crumpled up the paper, and threw it in the trash. He'd get his house. Then he'd have to kill those guys for messing his name up.  
  
As he walked down the street, a bag of clothes in one hand and Nailbunny's box in the other, he wondered who on Earth Zim was and why he'd left a house to Nny.  
  
. . . . . . . . .  
  
Deep in outer space, a soul was floating among the stars. It was happy, which had never happened in life. It wanted to share it with someone. So, it contacted its friend, down on Earth. They had only become friends in the last few minutes, but there were friends, none the less.  
  
The soul flew around Earth, and contacted its friend using the oldest trick in the ghost book: item possession.  
  
. . . . . .  
  
Nny walked into the Poop Estate Houses office building. The lights were out. "Hello?" he yelled, his hand gravitating toward his boot where his Knife was hidden. "Anyone here?"  
  
Nny sat down his bag and box and moved further in. "Hellooooo? If this is a prank or something, it isn't funny. Actually, it's kinda mean. I hurt people who are mean. In fact, most times I kill them."  
  
The lights flashed on, blinding Nny. While he squinted, waiting for his eyes to adjust, he sensed someone come up behind him. Before he could react, his arms and legs had been handcuffed together.  
  
"What the-- ?!" Johnny screamed, struggling to reach the Knife. He couldn't.  
  
"Aha, it is not you who will be doing the killing, but US!" a voice said. Nny squinted against the bright light, but all he could see was a silhouette.  
  
"And whom is it that has dirtied God's mighty Earth with your farts?" Nny spat out, struggling to reach the Knife.  
  
The man laughed. "Now, that's an original one if I ever heard it! I don't need to tell you who I am. All YOU need to know, is that I'm going to kill you, to get the house you got in a will!"  
  
"I got a house in a will?" Nny asked blankly. " . . . Oooooooooooh, so THAT'S how I got it!" He blinked. "Wait, you're gonna kill me to get a HOUSE??"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's just . . . stupid. What are you gonna do after you get it from me?"  
  
"Sell it again. We want the money."  
  
Johnny snorted. "Well, I could've paid for it myself!"  
  
"Really? Interesting. We're gonna have to kill you anyway."  
  
"What??" Nny yelled. "WHY?!?"  
  
"Because you've witnessed a murder attempt."  
  
"My sister witnessed me murder someone, and I didn't say anything to her."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Well." The man pause, obviously thinking. "I'm still gonna kill you."  
  
"Okay," Nny said. "Go ahead."  
  
The man drew a gun. "Do not bother pleading for your-- what?"  
  
"I said okay!" Johnny repeated. "I've had a lot of crud in my life, and I wouldn't really mind moving on. My friend did. I'm sure he's happier now."  
  
Nny still couldn't see the man, but he could tell he was smiling. The man drew his gun and cocked it. Suddenly, Nny realized how much he appreciated being alive.  
  
"Wait! I change my mind!" Johnny screamed. "I'd really like to live right now!" He braced himself for what was surely the end, when something flew from behind him. Nny looked up just in time to see it slash across the man's throat before returning to its thrower like a boomerang.  
  
Johnny turned around, to see Nailbunny floating in the air with red eyes. "I thought you needed some help," Nailbunny said. Nny screamed.  
  
Nailbunny looked confused. Well, as confused as a dead bunny could. "Dib? It's only me! It's Z--"  
  
The Nailbunny's eyes returned to normal. "Hi, Johnny," it said. "I'm Nailbunny!"  
  
Johnny fainted.  
  
. . . . . . . . . . .  
  
The soul floated over Earth. What had just happened? It had lost control over something it was possessing. It couldn't get its message through to its friend. It would have to try again.  
  
At least it has saved his friend's life.  
  
***  
  
Yeah, confusing? Yeah. More WILL be explained in the next chapter, like who the mysterious soul it. Aw, heck, most of you have guessed it anyway. For those of you that don't know, the soul is Zim. That is Zim's soul possessing stuff and trying to talk to Johnny. Yeah.  
  
Okay, I still need some plot ideas! And fanart for my fic! You can submit anything. Just anything. Try me.  
  
Oh, and just so you know, we won't be seeing any more of Tenna until the sequel. Yep. 


End file.
